Les élèves de 3° LCE (Langues et Cultures Européennes) ont pu, en décembre dernier, interviewer le charismatique libraire de la rue Taillefer, venu de New-York et passionné de littérature. Merci à lui pour son accueil très chaleureux.
Who is David Bouklas ?
His name is David. He is 38. He is from New-York, he is American but he’s been living in France since 2005. He has 6 brothers and 6 sisters who are in America. He studied in USA, in New-York. When he finished his studies, he became a librarian in USA.
After traveling all over the world in England, Canada, Spain, France…, he settled in Perigueux with his wife and his children. Before coming to France, he has done a lot of jobs like for example a boxing coach or a food delivery rider, his favorite.
He loves to read French books and he has seen a lot of cities in France. He misses the climate in America because he loves storms, but he likes the climate in France. Before, he didn’t speak French at all.
He opened his café because he’s passionate about books.
France is 6 hours ahead of New-York. David likes it living in France, for its healthcare but for many other things. He prefers Perigueux than Bordeaux and loves Paris’vibes. Moreover, he finds French food a bit strange….
His bookstore
Boukie’s is not just a café. You can read a book but you can also eat and drink. David doesn’t have employees. In his shop, he works alone. To him, a good book seller is not someone who has a lot of knowledge of books but it’s someone who is sociable, curious, interested and cheerful. He sells many types of books in about 8 different sections like biography, romance, comics, second-hand, self-care, fantasy, detective story, thriller, geography, children sections… He has around 4000-5000 books, only written in English and he has a lot of customers coming from a lot of foreign countries.
His passion for literature
His best-seller is « Death in Dordogne » which is a detective story. He didn’t read all the books of his shop because he doesn’t have the time but he knows all about them and he looks at interviews about the authors and reads reviews and comments about them all. One of the favourite authors of David is the famous Russian writer Dostoïevski. In addition, his favourite book is Tom Sawyer. He also loves ancient books and books from the 1990s.
He thinks Donald Trump is not a good person and that the situation of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is terrible and he doesn’t want this to happen in France.
David Bouklas decided to work here because he had an opportunity to work here and he took it. He works only 7 hours a day and the hard things are to clean up the place and run the business. He actually owns the library and decided to name it « Boukie’s » because from an early age, he was nicknamed « Bouklas » so he got inspired from it.
David left America in 2012. He is not homesick because he likes his life in France. He opened a bookstore because he liked it and it is a different job. He told us about the importance of reading and learning about things through literature intead of spending time on social media and in front of screens.
By The LCE Students
